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AFTER losing game one of the National Basketball League grand
final to the Sydney Kings, the Melbourne Tigers' coach, Alan
Westover, suggested to the media that he had not given the sparse
crowd at the Sydney Entertainment Centre the finger, rather that he
"was just asking them where they were".

It is doubtful that Westover's quotes will become as famous as
those of legendary American baseball player and manager Yogi Berra,
who once said: "If the fans don't come out to the ballpark, you
can't stop them."

But the Tiger coach's Wednesday question was expensive, with NBL
chief executive Chuck Harmison fingering him for $2000, the fine
for making an obscene gesture.

The frustrated coach, clearly, is a slow learner  his
captain, Chris Anstey, copped the same penalty for the same thing
in Brisbane last week when heckled after the Tigers swept their
semi-final series against the Bullets.

Westover's loss didn't end there. He got another $1000 for
criticism of the referees, when, angry over Anstey not being able
to get to the foul line in a tough game, he said at the post-game
press conference: "They just don't call anything. It's play on.
What's a foul nowadays? I don't know. You don't know what a foul is
or what a foul isn't. I don't know."

However, that $1000 could be money well spent by the time
tonight's game tips off at the venue the Tigers call the Cage
because a best-of-five series is all about adjustment, and the
first adjustment Melbourne believes it must have is for the
referees to call fouls, not put away their whistles.

The defence-oriented Kings have built their game around a
hard-at-it approach and, as with all Brian Goorjian-coached teams,
push to the limit to try to break opponents.

They weren't doing a good job of it in game one until, in the
second quarter, the coach called a time-out and let them have it:
"Get nasty! Get nasty!" he said. "It's a grand final."

They did, and the home team supported the super form of forward
Mark Worthington with the NBL's toughest defence and, by late in
the game, the Tigers were gone. Well and truly.

Westover said the score blew out late but if the Tigers, who hit
only 6-29 three-point shots overall and made only 3-17 field goals
in the last term, had "found the hole", the result would have been
different.

And, Anstey said: "You've got to play four quarters to beat them
and we didn't do that." True again.

Accuracy can be improved, but how do the Tigers manage to play a
full 48 minutes at full power against a team of such intensity?
Almost no one has this season, and in three home-and-away games and
one final, the Tigers haven't and are 0-4.

How do they suddenly win tonight or in Sydney on Sunday to start
the 3-1 or 3-0 run needed to upset the now red-hot favourites for
the championship?

Although the Tigers are favoured to win game two on their home
court  TAB Sportsbet has them at $1.67 and Sydney at $2.10
 the Kings are at an extremely tight $1.22 for the series and
the Tigers are a drifting $4.

Clearly, Goorjian can no longer play the underdogs card. But can
the bigger Tigers outplay the Kings?

They can, but their big three  Anstey and imports Sean
Lampley and Dave Thomas  need to lift their form from the
opener, especially Lampley.

"I think their focus remains the same," Goorjian said of the
Tigers. "They want to get the ball in the half-court and they want
to pump the ball inside and work off that  we did a pretty
good job of defending that. They're going to have to do something
about that."

And the Kings? "There's no change," the coach said. "Which team
lifts and gets better at what they do (will win)."

Anstey claimed not many adjustments were needed, with home-court
advantage and a belief that they shoot the ball better in the Cage.
"They're going to be aggressive with that nothing-to-lose
attitude," he said. "We've got to make sure we get a win and keep
our head above water."

Another legendary sporting figure, former Tigers coach Lindsay
Gaze, always said that after losing game one of a series, the score
was 0-1, irrespective of the margin.

On the other hand, if you adopt the 0-4 line  this
season's record  it is impossible to see Melbourne getting
three wins in the four games left unless the referees take
note of Westover's comments.

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1204779970100-theage.com.auhttp://www.theage.com.au/news/basketball/cornered-tigers-try-to-find-a-way-to-win/2008/03/06/1204779970100.htmltheage.com.auThe Age2008-03-07Cornered Tigers try to find a way to winStephen HowellSportBasketballhttp://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2008/03/06/camMarkWorthington_narrowweb__300x373,0.jpg